YouTube Music’s Head Quits, a Setback to Paid Service

The head of YouTube’s effort to launch a music subscription service is leaving, marking yet another hurdle for the long-delayed project.

Chris LaRosa, YouTube’s product manager in charge of music, will be leaving Google this Friday to join a startup. A YouTube spokesman confirmed LaRosa’s departure but didn’t say which startup LaRosa would be joining.

People who worked closely with LaRosa described him as very talented. It is a “huge loss” said one of these people.

LaRosa is the second person in charge of YouTube’s music service to leave over the past 12 months. The other, Nikhil Chandhok, left last fall according to his LinkedIn profile. Chandhok was a director in charge of music, paid subscriptions and live streaming, according to the profile.

Both departures resulted in part from frustrations that YouTube has been unable to launch its music subscription service in the year-plus since the first version of it was developed, according to a person familiar the matter.

Those delays have resulted from internal arguments about how the service should be designed, including what features YouTube should charge users for and how the service should be integrated with the rest of YouTube.

Among the music app’s key features, according to people who have seen preliminary versions: no advertising, the ability to continue playing music when users switch to other apps and storing music for offline listening for a short period.

People who already pay for Google’s other music subscription service, Google Play Music All Access, are expected to be able to use YouTube’s service as well, according to another person familiar with Google’s plans.

Delays in launching the app, which Google has said it expects to launch in the next few months, could complicate future negotiations over music licensing. At least some of YouTube’s existing license agreements, signed with major record labels in late 2012, require the company to launch a successful music service, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

Music labels have been concerned that freely available music on YouTube could reduce the revenues generated by paid subscription music services such as Spotify.

Some independent labels have complained that YouTube is pushing for cut-rate licensing deals with them and have refused to sign on, another roadblock for YouTube’s subscription service.

It’s not clear who will be leading efforts to launch the subscription service after LaRosa’s departure.